Modular electronic equipment typically is designed to be arranged within standard sized racks, frames, and cabinets. Each rack typically includes first and second vertical supports that are separated by an opening. The opening widths of racks tend to be standard sized, as adopted by industry, manufacturers, and/or governments. In the United States, for example, telecommunication service providers often use racks having opening widths of twenty-three (23) inches, whereas telephone companies in European countries may use racks having opening widths of nineteen (19) inches.
Often, modular electronic equipment is installed in a chassis and the chassis is then mounted within the opening of a rack. In the case of modular communication equipment, a chassis may house optical electronic equipment such as transmitters, receivers, intelligent control interface modules, power supplies, and the like. A chassis may also house cooling fans or other cooling mechanisms to aid in controlling the operating temperature of the equipment modules.
Conventionally, cables are connected directly to the modules in order to couple the modules to other electronic equipment. The other equipment may be located within the same chassis, within another chassis in the same rack, or elsewhere.
Due to the large number of cables that route to the modules of a chassis the area of cable connections becomes cluttered with crisscrossing cables that may make it difficult or impossible to isolate and perform maintenance on one or more modules without disrupting the cabling routing to other modules in the chassis. One typical example of this occurs when several chassis are mounted horizontally in a rack, one over another, forming a vertical stack. In such a configuration cables from upper disposed chassis are routed in front of lower disposed chassis in the stack, preventing access to the chassis and equipment behind the cable.